In August 1934, Portsmouth put into service trolleybuses 1 - 15 with a mixture of makes - AEC, Leyland,Sunbeam & Karrier; some 2 axle, some 3 axle; mixture of motors - English Electric; British Thompson Houston and General Electric - some regenerative, some not; bodies by English Electric or Metro Cammell. Despite no more than 3 being alike, they all served a full life into the 1950s (with the exception of one, which never re-entered service with Portsmouth after a wartime loan to Pontypridd UDC).
Pompey quickly settled on the 2 axle AEC 661T chassis with EE 80 hp motors, regenerative and took 85 of them between 1935 and 1937, and here we see 3 of the 1935 batch of 9
Posed on the AEC test track at Southall are 3 of the first batch of 9 AEC 661T / English Electric H26/24R: 18 RV6376 leads the first of the batch 16 RV6374 with 19 RV6377 bringing up the rear. 16 entered service 10/35, 18 & 19 the next month. 16/19 were withdrawn in 5/57; 18 earlier - in 7/55.
All of the prewar trolleybuses 1 to 100 were renumbered to 201 -300 in 4/38.

Photo taken by AEC Official Photographer (the late Roger Janes Collection), October 1935, AEC Test Track, Southall

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